Week Two

Hello my friends! I have been very busy. My usual work day this week has been 6am to 6pm and 1/2 day today. Very good progress on site. About 90% complete with structural excavation. Foundations are now in progress. Column footings are similar to ours in concrete with rebar although not as substantial. All other foundations are made of stone and mortor. The attached pictures give a good representation of this work. The stone foundations are called walling. Prior to setting foundation they place motor on top of excavated ground for leveling which is called blinding. Layout is called setting out. They do a great job with batter boards and string lines. after they set the stone foundations they place a reinforced concrete ground beam on top to tie the base in. Reinforced columns are then placed/extended and then a reinforced concrete ring beam is placed on top of columns around the entire perimeter. Un-reinforced hollow concrete block is then infilled between the ground beam and ring beam. They will build a mold and fabricate blocks on site.Reinforcing appears to be the size of a #3 bar.I am anxious to see the block mfg process start to observe quality. I am very pleased with the progress on site.
The contractor is struggling with completion of design build plumbing, electrical, and structural drawings. They got a taste of the real me in a meeting Friday. I have been assured their design progress will get better starting next week.
I have not found time venture out for anything but work. Finding it no different here than in Seattle where you have to constantly push the issues. Much more difficult here though with the cultural differences and language barrier. Tonight though I am planning to have dinner out at a place they call Heaven. Hopefully it will be a good venture. Would be nice to meet some lady ex patriots there!
The project located in Gashora is very rural and is a major farming area, supplying Kigali. It is amazing to see how they transport these goods on bicycles. I have attached a few pictures. You see everything from bananas, bags of produce, lengths of pipe, doors, etc hauled on these bicycles. If not then they balance on their head.
Can someone please fill me in on Seattle and important national news. The Internet is so slow it is impossible to view the times on line. files take 10 to 15 minutes to open each time you click to a new one! If I have not responded to one of your emails it is for this same exact reason. All for now. Hope all is well with you. Take care.